Standard
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[edit] Overview
A standard is “[a] rule, condition, or requirement: (1) Describing the following information for products, systems, services or practices: (i) Classification of components. (ii) Specification of materials, performance, or operations; or (iii) Delineation of procedures. . . .”[1] A standard can be virtually any characteristic by which a class of objects is compared.
Technical standards are particularly important in the development of new technologies because they help channel resources toward a limited number of designs. Standards also allow different products to work together, making products and services easier to use and less expensive and the market more predictable for buyers.
Standards can be established in several ways. Industry may agree on standards; government may impose them; or the market may determine them. Often a standard is established by the dominant producer of a new technology, but such de facto standards can take considerable time to emerge if several competitors offer different designs. Major consumers can also create de facto standards, as in the case of military standards and specifications on certain electronic assemblies.
Numerous committees have been established, with and without the help of government, to facilitate standards-setting. While technical considerations are important in standards-setting, social and political considerations often overwhelm them as companies attempt to impose the standards that best suit their own interests. Federal procurement policies also influence standards-setting.
[edit] Internet Standards
Standards are particularly important in networks, since many parties on the network must store and communicate information using compatible formats and procedures — called protocols. In small or closed networks, all the users can employ the same proprietary equipment and protocols, but in large and open networks this is impractical.
An important area of standards-setting is in the protocols used to send messages between computers. The Internet largely uses formats built upon the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Other protocols include the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) set.
[edit] Standards-setting Organizations
Standards are set through bodies such as the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Architecture Board, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the former Comite Consultatif Internationale de Telegraphique et Telephonique (CCITT), the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the American Bankers Association (ABA), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the Department of Commerce has a prominent role to work with these standards-setting bodies and also to develop Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) for use by the federal government and its contractors.
[edit] References
- ↑ 45 C.F.R. § 160.103.
